PAIR KILLED IN GLIDER ACCIDENT IDENTIFIED

The county Medical Examiner’s Office Sunday identified the two men killed in a glider crash at Jacumba Airport Saturday afternoon as Martin Gary Rothwell, 54, of San Diego, and Richard Riley Noble, 63, of La Jolla.

The Perkoz SZD-54 Glider had just been released from the towline used to get it airborne and was about 100 feet off the ground when “for unknown reasons” it went out of control and crashed at about 12:30 p.m., officials said.

Located off Old Highway 80, the Jacumba airport has long been popular for sailplanes. Enthusiasts from the Associated Glider Clubs of Southern California, which owned the plane that crashed, had planned a weekend of flying there.

The National Transportation and Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating.

JOHN WILKENS • U-T

Man suspected of attempted kidnapping

VISTA

A 13-year-old Vista girl’s father tracked down and detained a man he suspected of trying to kidnap his daughter Saturday night, sheriff’s officials said.

Deputies who investigated the incident arrested Javier Mendez Martinez, 48, on suspicion of attempted kidnapping and annoying a child.

The girl told her father that a man, driving a white truck, had followed her as she walked home from a food market. He asked her if she wanted a ride, then twice told her to get into his truck, sheriff’s Lt. Scott Amos said. He said the frightened girl ran home, about 6:30 p.m.

The father, a friend and the girl drove around looking for the suspect, Amos said. They spotted the truck and honked at its driver, who stopped. When the father asked the driver why he had followed the girl, the driver denied it, then jumped out the passenger door and ran, Amos said.

The father caught up to the man and held him until deputies arrived.

PAULINE REPARD • U-T

Driver dies in solo crash on state Route 52

SAN DIEGO

A 28-year-old Santee man was killed in a solo car crash on state Route 52 Sunday morning, the county Medical Examiner’s Office reported.

Sergio Joseph Dyda was westbound on the freeway at Santo Road at “a high rate of speed,” officials said, when the Subaru Outback hit the center-divide guardrail several times at about 4:30 a.m. The lone occupant was ejected and died at the scene.

JOHN WILKENS • U-T

Two checkpoints yield 34 arrests for DUI

SAN DIEGO

Two weekend checkpoints led to 34 arrests for drunken driving, San Diego police reported Sunday.

Almost 2,000 vehicles passed through a four-hour checkpoint on G Street near 14th Street in East Village Friday night and Saturday morning. Officers pulled over 559 of the cars for further screening and made 19 DUI arrests. Eighteen vehicles were impounded.

On Grand Avenue near Culver Street in Pacific Beach Saturday night and Sunday morning, 1,123 vehicles passed through, and 643 were screened. That led to 15 DUI arrests and 13 vehicles being impounded.

The traffic stops were funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety.

JOHN WILKENS • U-T

Coast Guard rescues pair 2 miles offshore

SAN DIEGO

The U.S. Coast Guard rescued two Mexicans by helicopter early Sunday morning after their personal watercraft capsized sometime before midnight Saturday.

“They were about two miles offshore, and they were just south of the Mexican border, so they were in Mexican waters,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer Henry Dunphy.

The Coast Guard was alerted shortly before midnight, arrived around 12:15 a.m. and airlifted them to the base. They were turned over Customs and Border Protection.